


favor me

by orphan_account



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: GOD I LOVE THEATER, Gen, M/M, Multi, Musical theater AU, Theater AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 07:19:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8195680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Holster lands the role of Anthony in Sweeney Todd and of course, Ransom is beyond proud. But the kissing...somehow, it's become a problem.





	

 

Ransom met Holster 7th grade year when Holster sat next to him in choir. Within three days, the teacher had to rearrange the seating chart because they both could not stop talking. Since then, they were bonded through their mutual hate of their 7th grade choir teacher and hockey. And now, through thick and thin, bad times and good, they sit together at lunch, beginning their junior year with Ransom mulling over colleges he wants to go to, and Holster slowly looking through his monologue book to see what he wants to use to audition for _Seussical_ or _Antigone_.

“Dude–whatever you pick, you’ll be great. You’re always great.” Ransom bumps shoulders with the blond who just shrugs and sets his book down.

“I’d beg to differ.”

Ransom wrinkles his nose and puts away his AP Psychology homework. He looks at Holster and sees the little crinkle in his eyebrow and the deeply worried look on his face. He throws his arm around Holster’s shoulders and shakes him a bit.

“C’mon man! Even if you don’t land anything this time around, they still do the Spring musical and play, along with the junior and senior cabaret stuff.” Ransom tries to comfort him. Holster nods, taking a deep breath before returning to his monologues.

Ransom _really_ doesn’t know what to do.

-

Holster gets cast as a Wickershim brother in Seussical but isn’t cast in Antigone. He shrugs and says something seniority before making Ransom listen to the entire cast album on Friday night after school as Ransom cooks something for dinner.

Ransom watches Holster jump around, acting like a monkey and wheezing of laughter when he makes the oddest of sounds. By the end of the night, Holster’s dozing off on Ransom’s shoulder and his chest tightens. Ransom doesn’t know it yet, but that’s where his feelings really start coming to light.

-

Within 3 months the show is rehearsed, in tech, and over before Ransom can blink. They barely have time to breathe before the third semester is barely over and Holster is rehearsing his audition song for _Sweeney Todd_  and his monologue for _The Rainmaker._ Ransom is still staring at his list of colleges and his AP Astronomy work. 

He absentmindedly fiddles with his pencil as Holster hums the song he’s using for the audition. Soon it’s no longer humming and Holster is singing the lyrics at full volume, the only other person there being Ransom.

“ _I feel you, Johanna…I feel you. I was half convinced I’d waken, satisfied enough to dream you. Happily I was mistaken…Johanna._ ” Holster sings, placing his homework in folders and highlighting a book he’s reading, as if singing was his second nature. No thought required.

Partly Ransom is confused by the weird lyrics, but is mostly pleased to hear Holster’s voice. Of course he’s heard it before, nearly six years of hearing Holster moan, groan, and screech through puberty about his light airy tenor tone that changed to a bari-tenor.  But right now–right now Holster is at his absolute best. Voice gliding over notes as if his vocal chords were made to sing this role.

When all is sung and done, Holster looks up to see Ransom staring. He opens his mouth but before Ransom knows it, he’s speaking.

“You should do that one.”

-

Two weeks later the cast list is posted during lunch outside of the gym and large crowd gathers and a joyful screech sounds out. It takes a moment for Ransom to realize, coming out of his AP class, that the screech is from Holster who is barreling towards him at full speed.

Holster knocks him to the ground, obscene giggles coming out of the blond’s mouth. It takes a moment for Ransom to realize what is happening and why there are high pitched noises coming out of his best friend’s mouth. 

“So I’m assuming you’ve got a good role?” Ransom says as Holster pushes himself off the ground and holds out a hand for the other boy. Ransom takes his hand and plans to pull away but is dragged further away from the lunchroom and towards the choir room door. 

“I’m Anthony! I’m _Anthony_ , Ransom, this is–aw man, this is great! I can’t–!” The words fail to escape Holster’s mouth as he points his index finger towards his name, high up on the list, italicized next to the name Anthony.

“Oh bro, that’s awesome!” Ransom fist bumps Holster, and although he doesn’t quite know what that means, what any of this means, he doesn’t want the gleam of happiness in his best friend’s eyes to die out.

-

So this is where Ransom’s problem really begins: five weeks into the rehearsal process, they’ve finally come around to some of Holster’s scenes. He swears he hasn’t completely memorized his lines (that’s a lie), hasn’t completely memorized all his vocal parts (that’s a lie, the vocal director loves him for it), and hasn’t completely dedicated every bit of his waking hours to this musical (also a lie, but the directors aren’t complaining). 

Ransom is sitting on top of one of the railings they’ve built; the strange set they’ve made makes the stage feel smaller, more like a black box theater than anything else. The actors are going to be right up on the audience and it’s delightfully creepy. 

The only thing is that from Ransom’s angle, it’s far too easy to see all that is happening in the scene they’re blocking; Anthony and Johanna stand on top of a platform that leads to a staircase to the “barber shop”. Johanna (played by none other than Caitlin AKA Farmer), is flitting around the platform, rehearsal skirt swirling as she turns and spins to the music, vocals reaching some stratospheric notes. Her blonde wig flings around and around until Holster grabs her by the shoulders and sings “ _Kiss me!”_

_“Oh sir…”  
_

_“Ah miss.”  
_

Ransom spends the rest of the rehearsal with an uncomfortable itch under his skin; they don’t kiss yet but one of the directors goes (Mr. Murray and Mr.Hall, the latter handling the leads scenes more and the former working with the ensemble) and helps explains the mechanics of stage kissing and the options they have for their comfort. 

Holster walks out of the theater like everything is normal-that kissing Farmer was just some background noise in his life. Ransom doesn’t figure out why there’s an uneasy feeling at the pit of his stomach. He chalks it up to anxiety before finals and keeps on walking. But there’s something else he can’t name.

Not yet anyway.

-

It’s the final three weeks before the show opens, two weeks before tech week, and one week before Ransom hears about internships from potential colleges. It’s a week before Holster starts to explore college programs and starts his roundup of workshops for college auditions. It’s stressful, not knowing where to go or what to do with their future. 

And in the midst of it all, is the rehearsals. They’ve moved onto adding a few costume pieces, a few props that are key to the production, and some wigs as well. Oh, and the kissing. They’ve moved onto that too.

It happens in an instant and Ransom isn’t ready for it-the way that Holster brings himself into the role of Anthony so easily, so readily. The change in his understanding of his character; the difference a few months can make in a character. The way his eyes shine and the way his smile comes easy for Farmer’s Johanna. It’s sickening and he doesn’t know _why_. He just knows when Holster places his hand upon Farmer’s cheeks and kisses her in the softest, most delicate way possible that his skin is on fire and he feels like he’s about to puke.

Holster walks off-stage after the scene to find Ransom thrown into mending one of the Beggar Woman’s costume, his nimble fingers threading the needle into the fabric with skill and attention. Ransom doesn’t notice the hand on his shoulder until he is violently shaken out of his thoughts.

“-Justin.”

“What? Sorry I was...mending.”

“It’s alright, bro.” Holster looks at him, frowning slightly. “You good?”

Ransom glances at Holster, blue eyes earnest and concerned. He blinks a few times before laughing, a little forcibly. 

“Peachy.”

Holster opens his mouth to say something, but is interrupted by Director Hall calling for him. Ransom turns away, shoulders tense. He doesn’t look back until he knows he’s gone. He stares down at his hands and sees he’s pricked himself and was bleeding on the fabric. 

“...Just peachy.” Ransom whispers to himself before he throws the needle down and puts his head into his hands.

-

Tech week is hell. Act 2 opening is sloppy and people are starting to slack on their vocals. The Judge forget all of his lines before his death. Sweeney keeps losing the razors. Holster is starting to lose his voice from over use. He’s put on vocal rest until the day before opening night. 

Ransom sits in the back, his textbook open to a page he’s read over and over. He doesn’t take anything in, just wants to look occupied as the disasters happen. He watches Holster pass by silently, decidedly not looking at the other boy. It sucks.

By the end of the night, they get out of tech late and Ransom has to drive Holster home because Holster’s sister has left to get sleep. They sit side by side, Ransom at the wheel and only focusing on the twist and turns of the road that leads to Holster’s house. It’s silent and a little uncomfortable-which is new, for the two of them.

It starts getting annoying, and then it’s too noticeable, and then it’s infuriating. Ransom pulls over to the side of the road near the park and turns to Holster, brown eyes suddenly on his blue hues.

“I-I don’t like you kissing Farmer,” he stutters out. “I think you should be kissing me.” 

It takes Holster by surprise and Ransom too. I didn’t mean to say that, Ransom thinks. He didn’t mean to say any of that. A furious blush takes to his cheeks and he lets out a heavy sigh.

“If you’re-if you-if you don’t like me that way, I get it, I totally get it, but please don’t get angry with me. I don’t think you’re homophobic or biphobic or anything phobic really but if you are, now is a good time to tell me so I don’t have to deal with this for the rest of-”

Ransom is silenced by Holster’s hand on his cheek. He’s close to Ransom’s face now, but not close enough to kiss him. He looks at him in the eyes but, glances down at Ransom’s lips a few times as if to ask “ _please, please let me kiss you_ ”. Ransom feels his breath leave him.

He grabs Holster’s wrist and gently leans forward to peck him on the lips. He pulls back and sees the flush working his way up Holster’s neck. He kisses him quick again, and then kisses him truly, deeply and doesn’t stop for air. It’s desperate and Ransom doesn’t really care. He feels like he’s been waiting for this since forever.

By the time they pulls back, Holster is laying across the armrest between them and is almost in Ransom’s lap. They breathe the same air and share their heat. Holster lets out a little laugh, croaky and faltering from no use. Ransom looks at him, with his eyebrows furrowed.

“I’ve been waiting to do that since 7th grade.” 

Ransom looks at him for a few seconds before his eyes go wide. Oh of course-of course, it was always Holster and no one else. How could he have been so _blind_.

“Kiss me.” Ransom says.

“Of course.”

-

Sweeney Todd opens and closes in a flash, with memories that would never be forgotten. Farmer finally asked out Chowder (who understudied Anthony), Bitty (playing Tobias) finally got a date with stage manager Jack Zimmerman, Lardo got nominated for her work on Mrs. Lovett, and Ransom finally kissed Holster. Multiple times. 

The weekend after the official closing, Ransom sits on the edge of the stage with Holster, taking a break from strike. Everyone is already mourning the production, as if it had been over for 10 years, and not one week. Ransom watches fondly as Jack helps Bitty take down the barber chair and Lardo takes a piggyback ride from Shitty in her Lovett costume one last time. Dex and Nursey are complaining about how heavy the set pieces were. Holster was holding his hand. 

Of course, serenity doesn’t last forever. There would be next year, senior year, with more musicals and more colleges to explore. More time to learn Holster’s lips and his romantic side. More time to learn about what stage right and stage left was. There was more time to be happy and to be sad. But right then and there, in that moment, Ransom was happy. All was, and would be, well.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written on tumblr! For more Check Please from this gal, head over to my blog @misterbitty!


End file.
